Purdue a unanimous No. 1 in AP Top 25; Vols up to No. 2

Purdue became this season’s first unanimous No. 1 team in the APTop 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday after wins overMichigan and Michigan State last week as chaos ensued behind theBoilermakers among other ranked teams.

More than half of Top 25 teams lost, including second-rankedAlabama, which was routed by Oklahoma in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.That allowed Purdue to grab the remaining No. 1 votes and tightenits grip atop the poll, while Tennessee jumped two spots to secondand Houston held onto third in voting by 62 national mediamembers.

The Boilermakers (21-1) have won eight straight since aone-point loss to Rutgers on Jan. 2.

“We’re the No. 1 team in the country because of how unselfish weare as a team,” Purdue guard David Jenkins Jr. said. “We had a lotof people doubting us in the beginning because, you know, we maynot be the most talented team or whatever, but we’re close on thecourt and off the court and it’s really translating to how we’rewinning.”

The Volunteers climbed to their highest perch since reaching No.1 for four weeks during the 2018-19 season. They routed Georgiabefore becoming one of three SEC teams to beat Big 12 opponents onSaturday, knocking off No. 10 Texas 82-71 for their fifthconsecutive win over a top-10 team.

Perhaps this is the year Rick Barnes finally gets the Volsthrough the Sweet 16 for the first time as their coach.

“We have a chance to be as good as we want to be,” he said.“It’s up to one thing: Are we tough enough to embrace the dailygrind? And not worry about going to the Final Four or worry aboutgoing to the NCAA Tournament, but can we build a team that can besuccessful that time of year? It starts with truly embracing thegrind.”

The Crimson Tide dropped to fourth after the blowout loss to theSooners, when Alabama fell behind by 17 at halftime in an eventual93-69 defeat. The Tide edged fifth-ranked Arizona by just twopoints in this week’s poll.

“It doesn’t have any effect on SEC standings, which is the onlygood thing to come out of this,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said ofthe lopsided loss. “Hopefully we’ll recover from a loss out ofconference, but you know, it’s not good.”

Virginia was sixth and Kansas State, which rebounded from anarrow loss at No. 13 Iowa State by pummeling Florida on Saturday,fell two spots to seventh; the Wildcats face eighth-ranked Kansasin a top-10 showdown Tuesday night.

UCLA dropped to ninth after losing to Southern California andTexas rounded out the top 10.

Baylor continued its climb from unranked to No. 11 followingwins over the Jayhawks and Arkansas. The Bears were followed byGonzaga, Iowa State, Marquette and league rival TCU — the sixth Big12 team in the top 15.

Xavier, Providence, Saint Mary’s, Florida Atlantic and Clemsoncompleted the top 20, while poll returners Indiana and San DiegoState joined Miami, UConn and Auburn in rounding out the Top25.

RISING AND FALLING

The No. 11 Bears and No. 17 Providence made the biggest leaps,each climbing six spots from last week.

“I think our defense is better. Our turnovers are better. Whenyou don’t give people easy transition baskets, now its five-on-fivein the half court,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team had adate with the Longhorns on Monday night.

“We execute at a pretty high rate,” Drew said. “It really comesdown to taking care of the ball, making sure we get shots up andwhen you don’t make them, you’ve got to get rebounds. And our guysare buying into that.”

Auburn took the biggest hit of those still in the poll, dropping10 places after losses to unranked Texas A&M and WestVirginia.

IN AND OUT

The Hoosiers returned to the poll at No. 21 and the Aztecsrejoined it right behind them. They took the place of Charleston,which fell out from No. 18 after losing to Hofstra, and New Mexico,which lost to Nevada in double overtime last week.

CONFERENCE CALL

The Big 12′s dominance of the SEC in the final year of theirhead-to-head challenge was rewarded in the poll, where the leagueled the way with six ranked teams and all of them in the top 15.The Big East has four teams in the poll but none higher than No. 14Marquette, while the SEC and ACC have three teams apiece.